MATERIAL SYMBOLS AND THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURAL CHANGE

Changes in economic patterns, such as in subsistence practices, settlement organization, and trade, are accompanied by changes in people's view of their world and their place in it. In contexts for which the economic bases and social configurations are fairly well understood, it should be possible to identify and interpret changes in symbolic systems. The case presented involves transformations in the character and decoration of ceramic vessels of the European Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. This line of inquiry can provide insight into shifts in attitudes and perceptions that came about as the result of newly developing economic and political configurations.     

历史文化街区表征与非表征之间的关联——以北京历史文化街区文化意义变化分析为例

历史文化街区存在建筑实体要素保护好,蕴含文化意义传承差的现象.本文从新文化地理学的角度,将街区作为景观,分析建筑使用形式和使用者变化后,景观意义的传承情况.本文以北京西四历史文化街区为景观对象,采用表征、非表征理论,调查当地居民对建筑实体体现意义的理解,及其具身的、实践的文化意义.研究结果显示:第一,该区表征文化主要是...     

国外旅游地社会文化变迁研究述评

论文介绍了国外旅游社会文化变迁研究状况,分别从旅游者、旅游地社区、旅游业以及全球化与地方互动的视角总结了国外旅游地社会文化变迁研究在理论与方法上的主要进展,评述了旅游者类型、旅游凝视、旅游者表演、旅游者阅读、旅游地生命周期理论、社区响应模式及其各种理论解释、文化环理论、旅游创造性破坏模型等在旅游地社会文化变迁研究中的贡献与不足,并指出了近年来国外旅游社会文化变迁研究具有流动性与表演性、社会文化生产与创造性破坏、非线性与复杂性等特点。     

CULTURAL EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL METABOLISM

The emergence of culture and cultural evolution is the result of an evolutionary process, evident also in non‐human species. What is specifically human is the dominance of cultural evolution. This does not mean that cultural evolution has replaced organic evolution, but rather that both have merged into one coevolutionary complex. Through niche construction, organic modern humans are the product of cultural evolution. This cannot be explained by adaptation to natural environment or by sexual selection. Cultural evolution with its coevolved organic traits did not so much enhance competence towards the natural environment as it did competence to develop and maintain cooperation. In the process, culture became a “system” with its own imperatives and integrating forces, differentiating into several autopoietic subsystems: the symbolic‐cognitive subsystem, the economic subsystem and the political subsystem. There are however social‐metabolic constraints that put limits on their evolutionary degrees of freedom. Culture's autopoietic reach has adaptive boundaries. The concept of social metabolism attempts to capture the unity of “persons” in a physical‐biological sense and “culture” in a symbolic sense, the decisive point being that culture must be understood as an autopoietic system sui generis. The social‐metabolic system of relations and interactions between nature, human population and culture is inherently coevolutionary. The history of social metabolism is the history of the coevolution of two autopoietic systems – an open and blind non‐orthogenetic evolutionary process.     

文化板块与丽江纳西族地区的文化特征

丽江地区历史时期是多元文化角逐的重要场所,本文从文化板块角度,对这一地区的文化特征进行了剖析     

论城乡关联发展与文化整合

本文对城市化的内涵进行了新的诠释,指出城市化应是城乡关联发展的过程,其实质是城乡文化的整合。在这个基础上,本文对城乡关联发展研究的理论动态作了详细的评析,并指出人们越来越重视城乡网络化关联发展研究。城乡关联发展是城市化不可回避的发展态势,这为城乡之间的文化整合创造了前提条件。城乡文化整合是城市化在城乡关联基础上的深化和拓展,体现了城市化过程中城乡居民共享文明的根本目标。本文还对城乡文化和城乡文化整合进行了分析。     

INTERPRETATION AND EXPLANATION IN CULTURAL SOCIOLOGY

Continuing debates over the role of interpretation in history and social science have recently been linked to a program to develop a cultural sociology, as distinct from a sociology of culture. Apart from a defense of the importance of culture and meaning, this effort aims to develop a form of “interpretive explanation,” though not simply by following Max Weber's similar project from nearly one hundred years ago. The book under review looks at different “epistemic modes” that aim to produce social knowledge, in order to show how interpretive explanation can combine the best of all the modes. Unfortunately, the book is beset by numerous theoretical problems, including a problematical understanding of the relations of fact and theory, hasty criticisms of examples of the different modes, and a reliance on metaphors that makes it impossible to do justice to the issues. The project of what I would call a “thick explanation” is worthwhile, but will have to be pursued in a more nuanced and careful way.     

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES AND URBAN REVITALIZATION

Municipal governments around the globe increasingly turn to museums, performing arts centers, arts districts, and other cultural activities to promote and revitalize their cities. While a significant body of literature examines revitalization strategies that focus primarily around entertainment and commerce, the empirical body of research that specifically investigates the role of cultural strategies in urban redevelopment is still growing. This paper first discusses the development of municipal cultural strategies in the United States, and draws from the literature to outline the characteristics of three different models of such strategies. Second, the paper presents findings from a national survey distributed to municipal agencies involved in the promotion and development of cultural activities and facilities in large and medium‐sized US cities. The survey data indicate that although most agencies are guided by a varied set of goals, entrepreneurial objectives continue to guide the development and support of cultural activities in most cities.     

CULTURAL HERITAGE BETWEEN CENTRALISATION AND DECENTRALISATION

Management of Italy's heritage has been in increasing turmoil since 1993. This paper identifies and reviews significant reform attempts, including outsourcing, devolution, managerialism and privatisation. The authors propose a framework for improved understanding of the various solutions examined – distinguishing between professional and organisational centralisation. It is argued that while decentralised organisational management can have positive effects, effective protection of heritage in Italy over the centuries has depended on a complex set of rules concerning stewardship and protection, relying upon centralised professional control. This still has positive value and needs to be preserved through the reform process.     

文化观念与区域可持续发展

区域文化观念始终潜移默化地影响区域发展主体。区域活性是对区域发展状态的一种模糊综合评判与描述。文化观念以发展主体为载体,影响区域活性各侧面,成为活性动力源。在具体时空环境下,经济现代化的地域模式与不同地域的历史传统和文化背景有密切的内在逻辑联系性、一致性和耦合性。在区域综合力各分力中,自然力是基础、经济力是核心、文化力是动力源。概而言之,区域文化观念在影响区域发展主体的同时,以区域发展主体为载体和中介,影响区域活性、区域发展模式和区域综合力,参与区域经济社会循环,成为区域可持续发展的重要影响因素。     

全球化背景下城市文化地理研究的新趋势

文化全球化背景下,在城市的快速转型过程中,城市文化发展和演进面临更多新要素的触动:"异质文化"日渐冲击或渗透着城市本底文化,影响城市文化发展的主要因子也更多从自然环境要素始向人文因素转变,即城市本底文化生存的"土壤"正在发生革命性改变,从而使城市文化表现出更多时代内涵、时尚意韵和新景观。本文基于国内外相关研究进展,讨论全球化背景下城市文化地理研究的新态势,以期对新时期国内文化地理学的研究有所裨益。     

CHRONOLOGICAL INSIGHTS, CULTURAL CHANGE, AND RESOURCE EXPLOITATION ON THE WEST COAST OF SWEDEN DURING THE LATE PALAEOLITHIC/EARLY MESOLITHIC TRANSITION

In this paper, we attempt to shed light on a probable cause of cultural change via a new avenue of approach. In brief, the paper represents a micro-study that addresses the Ahrensburgian culture group during the close of the Late Palaeolithic in north central Europe, and its relationship to the Hensbacka group found in central Bohuslän on the coast of western Sweden. Although we do not disagree that environmental conditions are a 'prime mover' of cultural change, we hold that it is not the only 'mover'. In addition, we also discuss the distinct possibility that the term 'microlithization' cannot be used as a synonym for the Mesolithic. The foundation of our micro-study is based on interdisciplinary concepts from the fields of archaeology, economic anthropology, geosciences, and marine zoology.